D.I.Y. BIOHACKING: A BETTER YOU, TODAY

in #science6 years ago

Bioengineering in your garage. It’s a real thing people are doing. A lot of people. Maybe your neighbor. Given the people who use this site, possibly you. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s cover the basics.

First: Yes, it is legal for almost anyone to buy DNA samples. Internet access and a credit card are all you need to get your hands on cloned DNA fragments. Really. It’s easy.

Second: No, the equipment necessary to splice and edit DNA is not prohibitively expensive. Not anymore. The big tools are still pricey, but we’re talking new car numbers, not space program numbers. And other devices are in fact dirt cheap. That opens up the field to a lot of curious people. Some companies are even selling DIY kits to individuals. For example, a company called Amino Labs sells something called DNA Playground, which is a genetic oven that sells for a few hundred dollars. Odin, a biohacking startup, sells a Crispr gene-editing kit for $159. It comes with instructions and a tutorial on how to splice DNA. They’ll sell this to anyone. No advanced degree, professional affiliation, or medical license is required to purchase these home labs.

Third: Gene editing is not as complicated to do as you’d think (or hope). Or rather, the knowledge and techniques to do it are commonly available now, distilled down by trail and error into clear language understandable by anyone who can read. You don’t have to attend PhD programs at MIT or Stanford to learn how to manipulate genes. The gates have opened wide. The bar is lowered. All may bite from the genetically modified apple.

Fourth: No government regulation prevents people from experimenting with biochemistry in their homes. As long as you aren’t cooking up meth or openly developing a new strain of Ebola, you can do what you like.

On one hand, this is exciting. It parallels the giddy days of late 19th and early 20th century inventors who were busy creating canned goods, electrical devices, piston engines, and flying wings in their home workshops, ignorant or uncaring of the consequences. A lot of the things we take for granted today, even look at with pity and scorn, were developed by eager enthusiasts just seeing what would happen if they tried “this”.

Like these guys.

And this dude.

The flipside is obviously that…this isn’t that. We’re talking about biology here. DNA. Life. All kinds of life. Namely, disease. Some well-meaning nitwit with all the tools, half the knowledge, and no caution could accidentally cook up a batch of super-smallpox that wipes out half of the population of North America. A lab in Canada already created a strain of horse smallpox that had previously been extinct. They did it using two fragments of overlapping DNA they bought online. Good job, buddy!

And take this guy, Josiah Zayner. He publically injected himself with home-modified DNA that would give him more muscle mass (strength). It didn’t work, but there’s always next time.

Is he a radical pioneer or the ego-centric dipshit that accidentally kills us all?

Considering that nearly everyone involved in the creation and development of what we now know as the internet regrets what it has become, I’d say the chances are high something bad happens with all of this.

Even the most ardent free range libertarian should have second thoughts about leaving this sector of science unregulated and unsupervised.



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You have a minor misspelling in the following sentence:

He publically injected himself with home-modified DNA that would give him more muscle mass (strength).
It should be publicly instead of publically.

Publicly is the accepted correct version, however publically is found as a variant in a growing number of dictionaries.

Dilly is the sheeple, not a noble sheep, @writesbackwards ;)

I am writer so it's really new to me, but it's really interesting to read because, it's really unbelievable that in current phase Science and Technology field really sitting on great heights and achieving many inventions and some are really shocking and can surprise the human kind. Thanks for sharing this post with us and wishing you an great day. Stay blessed. 🙂

This world is just Moronic and that is it...
Maybe one day somebody will alter the DNA of his own intelligence and increase his own IQ
Light is going to be suddenly brighter and he is going to shout
What a F...k I am doing !!!

This could get very scary. In the wrong hands, who don't know what they're doing, this could be dangerous. That being said, I'm off to try to clone myself.

Hola @writesbackwards
En lo particular a mi me aterra el tema de clonación. Me recuerda los Niños del Brasil y la rata de Adolf Hitler.
Saludos y Muy buen artículo

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